Improvement in steam-engines



HENRY Aw. ADAMS.

l Improvementin vSteam Engines.` No. l22,98 l Patented1an;;3,1a72.

UNITED STATES HENRY W. ADAMS, OF PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA.

IMPROVEMENT IN STEAM-ENGINES.

Specication forming part of Letters Patent No. 122,981, dated January 23, 1872.

Specification describing an Improvement in Steam-Engines, invented by HENRY W. AD- AMS, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

` Improvement fm Steam-Engines.

My invention consists of a steam-engine in which a portion ofthe exhaust steam is introduced with the live steam into the cylinder, in a manner too fully explained hereafter to need preliminary description. My invention, which is an improvement on that for which Letters Patent were granted to me on the 27 th `day of June, 1871, has for its object economy in the use of steam by utilizing a portion oi' the exhaust steam. v

In' the accompanying drawing, Figure lis a vertical section of a steam-cylinder, valves, Sac., illustrating my invention; Fig. 2, a sectional plan on the line l 2, Fig. l; Fig. 3, a vertical section on the line 3 4, Fig. l, Fig. 4, a vertical section on the line 5 6, Fig. l.

A is the cylinder of a horizontal steam-engine, B, the piston, and C, the piston-rod, E being an ordinary slide-valve connected to a valve-spindle, F, and operating within the chest G, to whichlive steam is admitted through an opening, a. H Hare the two steamfpcrts, and I the exhaust port, the latter communicating with the external air through a pas` sage, I', as well as through a passage, b, with a chamber, J, which communicates with a lower chamber, K, through openings d d, each opening being furnished with a valve, e, and the spindle of each valve passing through a stuil'- ing-box, f, on a cover, j", which closes an opening in the top ofthe chamber J. Each steamport H communicates through a circular passage, H, and through a curved passage, h, with one end of the cylinder, and the continnity of each passage H is interrupted by a slot, i, which communicates with the chamber K, the passage being contracted on one side of this slot and slightly expanded on the opposite side, as shown in the drawing. By the operation of the slide-valve the steam is admitted lil-st to one port, H, and then into the other port precisely as in ordinary steam-engines. The exhaust steam is also discharged in the usual manner into theport I, and thence through the passage I to the external air, or part ofthe exhaust steam will, under the circumstances described hereafter, pass from the port I into the chamber J. When the engine is working at its full power, as in the case of a locomotive ascending a steep grade or starting a heavy train, the valves e e will remain closed and the engine will operate in precisely the same manner as an ordinary engine, but when it is ruiming at a high speed and the pressure of steam in the cylinder, owing to the momentum acquired by the piston, becomes less than that in the steam-chest, part of the exhaust steam will enter the steam-passage and will be re-enforced by the live steam and aid the latter in completing its duty. Supposing the piston, for instance, to have reached the limit of its rearward stroke, as shown in Fig. l, the steam will begin to enter the port H to the left while it is exhausting through the steam-port to the right, and through the valve into the exhaustpcrt I. The steam as it rushes through the passage H will be in terrupted to a limited extent by the contraction or the said passage and becogie a forcible jet, which, owing to its velocity across the slot t', will cause a partial vacuum in the chamber l, when the valve e above will descend and permit part of the exhaust steam which had been admitted through the passage b into the chamber J to pass from the latter into the chamber K, and thence through the slot t' into the steam-passage H', where it will unite with and be heated by the said live steam, and, entering the rear of the cylinder, assist the said live steam to force the piston forward. Precisely the same result takes place with the valve e to the right in Eig. l on the return stroke of the piston.

As extraordinary economy in the use of steam results from my invention it would be well to describe the experiments made with the view ci' determining this result.

Myexperimental engine had a cylinder thirteen inches in diameter, and hada stroke of twelve inches, the pressure of steam used being twenty-live (25) pounds per square inch.

In the tirst instance the valves e were closed to their seats by turning the nuts of their spindles so that no exhaust steam could gain access to the passages H', and such friction was applied to the iiy-Wheel that it made one hundred and thirty revolutions per minute. After this the valves e e Were set free to operate, and A steam-cylinder having passages H with Without altering the friction on the fly-Wheel slots t', through which exhaust steam can be the latter made one hundred and eighty revoadmitted by the automatic action of valves oplutions per minute. It Was observed that the erating substantially in the manner described. valve e on the left opened immediately after In testimonywhereof I have signed my name the commencement of the forward stroke of to this speeiiication in the presence of two subthe piston, and did not close until the coni4 scribing Witnesses.

menoement of the return stroke, When the valve HENRY WV. ADAMS. to the right opened. These experiments were Witnesses: repeatedly made With the saine results. WM. A. STEEL,

I claim as my invention- HARRY SMITH. 

